del.icio.us |

Memorial Day for Peace

Opening Words:

What a foolish notion, that war is called devotion
When the greatest warriors
Are the ones who stand for peace.

- Holly Near

On Memorial Day this year I joined a group of people at the Boston Harbor who were honoring those who have died in wars, those who have had their lives touched by wars, those who work for peace.

I wasn't there for the whole program which included a memorial tribute to Howard Zinn. He is being well-remembered in the Boston area. I went to a lovely tribute program to this ardent activist several weeks ago and was pleased to hear more about the many realms in which he had practiced his activism.

I arrived at the Memorial Day for Peace event while they were in the midst of reading the names of people from Massachusetts who had died while serving in the military in either Iraq or Afghanistan. The readers were primarily people who were members of Veterans for Peace groups or Gold Star Families for Peace. (I find the term gold star abhorrent in this context – it is the military saying your loved one died while serving in the military, now we'll give you a gold star.)

After each name was read, a flower was thrown into Boston Harbor. Some of the people throwing flowers were relatives of the person whose name had been announced, but mostly they were just part of the gathered crowd. I thought about throwing a flower in, but to me, at that moment, throwing a flower into the harbor didn't seem like it would address the great sadness I was feeling, hearing the names of all those people who, in my opinion, had died needlessly.

Next came an Iraqi man who read the names of people he had known who had been killed because of the war in Iraq. There were quite a few Iraqi people there, and they shared the reading of names, and the throwing of flowers into the harbor. The flowers were being handed to people by Carlos Arredondo whose son was killed in Iraq. When the names of Iraqi people were being read, Carlos invited a young Iraqi girl, perhaps she was 6 or 7, to help hand out the flowers. It was cute and adorable, and so sad to see this so young person taking part in a ceremony to honor people who had been killed in war.

After the names of many Iraqi people, the names of Afghani people who had died in the war were also read. The ages of those people were noted, and my heart sunk to hear the ages of children: 6 years old, 9 years old, 8 months old.

I found myself thinking of how senseless war is. And what a failure of imagination it is to kill people to try to settle conflicts. And even more so, where does the notion that any group of people have the right to dominate any other group of people come from?

From my Ethical Culture perspective, which might be different from your Ethical Culture perspective, I see holding the concept that each person has inherent worth as incompatible with a concept that it is OK to kill someone with whom you disagree, or whom you want control over – either as an individual or as a nation. Killing someone doesn't elicit his or her best. Nor does creating situations of fear, of havoc, of limiting access to basic human needs of food and shelter and safe water, create situations in which a person's unique self can flourish.

Randy Best, former Co-Leader of ESWoW, shared remarks he had made at a Memorial Day event in North Carolina and I share Randy's remarks with you. It includes a statement from the National Leaders Council of the American Ethical Union written after President Obama announced his plans for adding 30,000 troops in Afghanistan. I was one of the Leaders who supported this statement.

I especially appreciate Randy's including some alternatives to war – not everyone has a failure of imagination, and his making the connections between how we consume and use energy, and the wars our country is now fighting.

How did you spend Memorial Day? What does it mean to you? Why?

Closing Words:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

- John Lennon